Filled with sex, violence and every dirty word you can think of, Amazon Prime’s surprise success “The Boys” was not messing around, and apparently neither is Amazon. After receiving incredible reviews, the summer streaming hit has already started filming Season 2, with a tentative release date sometime next summer. An adaptation of the comic book series with the same name, written by Garth Ennis and co-created and illustrated by Darick Robertson, Season 1 made some drastic deviations from the source material, creating immense uncertainty for what will occur in Season 2.
Heads up, there will be spoilers for Season 1. If you haven’t seen it yet, what are you waiting for?
Season 2 also left us with some major cliff hangers, leaving the possibilities for Season 2 endless. Hughie and the Boys, a group of vigilantes set on taking down the evil Vought corporation and their corrupt team of superheroes, The Seven, are on the run. Starlight, the only seemingly good member of the Seven and Hughie’s love interest, has just helped Hughie escape A-Train, another member of the Seven, but is now separated from him.
And Billy Butcher, the leader of the boys, finally confronts Homelander, the head of The Seven, and Madison Stillwell, a high-level executive in Vought, only to find out his dead wife is alive. And raising Homelander’s son.
Since we have plenty of time until the next season comes out and we have to fill the gap somehow, here’s a super early speculative look at what the next season of “The Boys” could look like.
Hughie and the Boys on the run
The Boys are now on the run as they are officially named fugitives. Not only that, but they are also without their leader, Butcher, the mastermind behind the plan of attack that made up the entirety of the first season.
Nobody knows exactly what they will be up to, but they sure as hell aren’t going to stop until they can expose and take down the corrupted Vought. This will likely lead to some kind of ultimate confrontation with The Seven. More specifically, the conflict between Hughie and A-Train will likely come to a head, as Starlight said, “He’ll never stop coming for you” to Hughie as he attempted to help A-Train while he was suffering a heart attack after A-Train had tried to kill him.
Butcher will probably rejoin his crew at some point, even if tensions are still a little high between him and Hughie. There might even be a bit of a flip of the script, where Hughie takes on more of a leadership role over Butcher, as throughout Season 1 you see Hughie grow as a character and become stronger and more confrontational. At the same time, you also see more of Butcher’s flaws, and he loses sight of the team’s goals toward the end of the season.
Hughie and Starlight
While “The Boys” was a dark, largely bleak series, the romance between Hughie and Starlight was one of the more compelling aspects that didn’t involve blood or babies being used as weapons. Things were going well for them until Starlight found out Hughie was a member of The Boys and was the one who murdered her co-worker and teammate Translucent.
Clearly, Starlight still has feelings for Hughie and, at some point, realized that Hughie was fighting for the right cause or else she wouldn’t have come to his rescue. And while they were together at the end of the last episode you could tell there was still some sparks there between them.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough time for them to really talk. So yes, she helped him out, but the question of whether or not she has forgiven or trusts him still remains. Eventually, they’ll have to get some time together on screen to sort all that out.
It might be a while before that happens though, as the last episode ended with them separated. One way they could get back together would be if The Seven imprison her after A-Train tells them about her helping The Boys (assuming he survives his heart attack) and Hughie comes and rescues her.
No matter what though, Hughie and Starlight have to end up together. Or a least they should, considering the showrunners have essentially set them up to, and it would be pretty disappointing if it doesn’t happen. One of the great parts of about this show is that it is unpredictable, and there have been some pretty significant deaths, but it isn’t quite “Game of Thrones” level “no one is safe,” leaving it pretty likely Hughie and Starlight will both survive to live happily ever after and all that. Still … you never know.
Butcher and Homelander
By far the biggest cliff hanger of the show involved Butcher finally confronting Homelander over what Butcher thought was the rape of his missing wife. This has been what’s been fueling him all these years to take down Vought and The Seven.
In a crazy turn of events, Homelander takes an unconscious Butcher to the house of his long-lost wife. If that weren’t traumatizing enough, it turns out she has a kid. Not Butcher’s kid though. Homelander’s.
This leaves so many questions to hopefully be answered next season. Why has she been hiding? Did she actually get raped or was the sex consensual like Homelander claims? What is going to happen with the kid and his superpowers? Will there be a custody battle? What will Butcher say to his wife?
And you can’t look to the comics for answers, because in the original story, Butcher’s wife actually did die after giving birth.
This will for sure put Butcher through even more emotional trauma. I mean, finding out that your wife has actually been alive all these years? And on top of that gave birth to the child of your sworn enemy?
It will also be interesting to see what this does to his relationship with Hughie, as talked about by showrunner Eric Kripke. Losing a loved one at the hands of the Seven was what brought them together. If it turns out this hasn’t been true for Butcher, will they lose the foundation of their relationship, causing it to crumble?
And about Homelander and the kid. I’m sure Homelander will want to take him under his wing and turn him into a “hero,” but really use him to continue to gain power and enhance his celebrity status. Even if Butcher and his wife don’t want him to, they are almost powerless to stop him, at least at first. I’m sure there will also be some kind of showdown between Homelander and Butcher at some point. Butcher might even have to kill the kid if he becomes too brainwashed by Homelander.
New Faces
There also will be some new characters in the new season, with one already making a brief appearance in the last episode.
Goran Visnnijic has been cast as Alistair Adana, a “charismatic and shadowy leader of a mysterious church.” Claudia Doumit will be playing Victoria Neuman, a “young wunderkind congresswoman.” It will be interesting to see her impact on the politics that have been going on with Vought, The Seven and their role in the United States military.
And Giancarlo Esposito will be returning as Stan Edgar, the CEO of Vought. He was only in one scene last season, but with Madison Stillwell dead at the hands of Homelander, he will likely be taking on a bigger role in Season 2 and will likely be just as greedy and corrupt as Stillwell, if not more so.
And lastly, Aya Cash is rumored to be playing the hero Stormfront. It is unknown what Stormfront’s storyline will be. In the comics, he (Stormfront is a man in the comics but will be played by a woman if Aya Cash gets the role) has lightning Thor-like powers and is an extreme racist. But with all the differences so far in the series from the comics, I wouldn’t rely too heavily on them as far as storyline goes.
This all just some of what’s to come in season 2 of “The Boys.” We didn’t even get a chance to really get into other storylines and characters. Like what The Deep will do now that he’s kicked out of the Seven? Will A-Train survive his heart attack? And of course, there’s the threat of super terrorists created by Homelander to deal with.
I guess to find out for sure what’s going to happen next, you’re just going to have to tune into Season 2 next summer.
